While I value the place of spiders in the world and the work they do in the garden, they scare the bejesus out of me. There is something about the speed with which they can run or sail, the ease with which they bite, and the squishiness of some of their bodies that just puts me over the edge. So of course I read an anthology of horror stories with a spider theme.

The entire e-book gave me the willies, but some were worse- better?- more effective than others. Christine Morgan’s `The Fate Spinners’ is one of the scariest things I’ve read, because I’ve had spiders come down from the ceiling onto me when I’m sleeping and to the arachnophobe, it’s only a small step to giant spiders coming down from the ceiling. There are multiple stories where people are held captive in spider filled basements, but they each have a different take on it. The spiders aren’t always evil; sometimes they are the persecuted, wanting revenge and sometimes wanting only to live. `The Golden Rule’ is one of those stories where you can see where it’s going, but go along for the ride anyway just to see how horribly it turns out for the people. `The Rules of Magic’ has a sense of irony in it, like what would result if O. Henry had written horror fiction. Sometimes, as in the last two stories, the spiders come in disguise and lure their victims in by seeming harmless. Those may be the worst, because you trust the faces they wear right up until the end.

If you like horror and are scared of spiders- or at least admit to their possibilities as monsters- this book will be right up your alley.